Schleinz Castle

Schleinz appears as early as 903 in a document from the Diocese of Passau. At that time, there was talk of an estate "ad slivnica", meaning by the plum stream. The name underwent many changes in the Middle Ages – sluniz, Sleunz, Sleyntz, Schleunz, etc. – which repeatedly led to confusion with the castles of Schlaining and Burgschleinitz. However, a Gerhardus de Sluniz can be clearly assigned to Schleinz around 1130. He had a fortified house here, but it had no strategic importance, as Schleinz is located off the then important road through the Pittental valley. The current small castle was built around 1770. It served as a manor house for Ignaz Oberhofer, who founded a paint and chemical factory here in 1792. As the company ran into economic difficulties at the beginning of the 19th century, the owners changed quite frequently. Franz Schubert spent several weeks in the castle in 1827 as a guest of the landlord. The animal painter Carl Rudolf Huber was born here in 1839. Temporarily, the residence was also owned by the management of the Wiener Neustadt Canal. Lack of maintenance and the Second World War with its consequences led to a widespread decay of the building. In 1964, it was acquired by Rudolf Graf Czernin von Chudenitz and extensively restored in 1966. The charming small castle is inhabited by the family.

The small residence is located at the southern end of the village of the same name. It is a Josephine-Classical rectangular building, consisting of a ground floor and an upper floor on the front side. The center of the seven-axis facade is emphasized by a representative altana, which rests on four Tuscan columns. Behind it, on the ground floor, is the round-arched entrance gate. The rear side is single-story and nine-axis. A small polygonal roof turret sits in the middle of the ridge on the massive hip roof. The elegant interior includes furniture and paintings from the former Czernin Gallery. The small castle has no courtyard but is surrounded by a well-maintained park.